A federal judge in Seattle has blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump that paused international refugee resettlement processing, and funding for the agencies that performed those services.
“To be sure, the president has substantial discretion ... to suspend refugee admissions, but that authority is not limitless,” District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead said at a hearing on Feb. 25.
Whitehead said his decision was prompted by the harm caused to the plaintiffs, including the shuttering of refugee agencies and hardship imposed on individuals whose plans to immigrate to the United States were suddenly thwarted following the executive order.
He said that the case was full of “textbook examples” of irreparable harm.
“I have refugees stranded in dangerous places, families who have sold everything they own in advance of travel that was abruptly canceled,” he said.
He also said the order “nullified the will of Congress” by withholding funds allocated for those programs.
A group of individuals from around the globe sued Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Dorothy A. Fink to block the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) from being paused.
Deepa Alagesan, attorney for the plaintiffs said the executive order’s effect had been devastating, both to the individuals waiting for refugee claims to be processed, and to resettlement agencies like Lutheran Community Services Northwest, whose funding had been cut.
Some of the agencies had been forced to lay off staff, and were facing future shutdown, she said.
“Like Humpty Dumpty falling off the brick wall, pieces are being broken that will not be put together without immediate relief,” she said.
“Whole regions of the world will remain closed to refugee processing” since the agencies operate in Europe and Africa, Alagesan said.
Meanwhile, those seeking permission to come to the United States are “in limbo” awaiting a resolution.
Justice Department lawyer August Flentje, arguing on behalf of the government, said pausing the program was well within the president’s power, noting that the Refugee Act of 1980 gives the president the right to decide how many refugees the country will accept each year.
He could set that number to zero, Flentje said.
